Miku, walking down the academy corridor, stopped dead in her tracks.
It was currently the lunch break, and she had time until her next lecture, wondering what to do with herself, when she suddenly remembered something.
Thinking it would be a good way to kill time, Miku started walking in the opposite direction of where she had been going.
However, her steps came to a halt after a few paces.
“Huh? Miku-chan, weren’t you going that way?”
Someone called out to Miku from behind.
Miku recognized the voice instantly, so she turned around and waited on the spot for the owner of the voice to approach.
“Akari, what are you doing here?”
“Me? I’m just wandering around because I have free time until my next class. So, what about you, Miku-chan?”
“I was the same… but I just remembered something along the way.”
It was clear to anyone how Miku had changed direction after remembering something, and Akari looked at her with a questioning gaze. Miku answered her, shifting her gaze slightly.
Akari tilted her head slightly at Miku’s response.
“Something you remembered?”
Seeing her friend’s gesture and words, Miku judged that her friend’s pursuit would not stop, so she gave up on explaining with words.
“…It’s not something I need to hide, so do you want to come with me?”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Seeing Miku nod immediately, Akari replied, “Then I’ll join you.”
It was true that she had free time until the next lecture’s start.
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Accompanying Akari, Miku headed to the academy’s training grounds.
Upon learning that the place Miku was heading to was the training grounds, Akari’s face clearly showed a lack of interest.
At the academy, students are required to undergo a minimum of combat training, but Akari wasn’t that interested in combat.
As she progressed to higher grades, the lectures she took were all unrelated to combat.
It was only natural that she wouldn’t want to watch other people fight during her lunch break.
Of course, Miku knew this, so her earlier exchange contained a slight touch of playful teasing.
Perhaps because she felt she had gotten herself involved, Akari didn’t seem like she would turn back midway.
While they were talking, Miku arrived at her destination, the training grounds.
For some reason, this training ground seemed to have more observers than others.
The observers noticed Miku’s arrival and looked surprised.
Miku, to some extent ignoring the observers, walked to the entrance of the training grounds and entered as she was.
“Huh!?”
Akari, who had been a bit intimidated by the surrounding gazes, also let out a surprised cry.
However, Miku paid no mind and asked with a perplexed expression, “Aren’t you coming? It looks like training is in progress, so we can’t leave the door open for too long, you know?”
As Miku said that, Akari hastily slipped into the training grounds.
Having confirmed that, Miku checked that no one else was following and closed the training grounds’ door.
Before Miku and Akari entered, three people were training with serious expressions in the training grounds.
Those three were Miku’s older siblings, Seiya and Shia, and their senior, Casey.
However, no matter how seriously they were training, they would notice if the training grounds’ door opened. This was even more so since they weren’t engaged in a mock battle.
If someone other than Miku had entered the room, they would have stopped immediately. But knowing it was Miku, they resumed their conversation as if nothing had happened. However, Miku and Akari approached soon after, so their conversation had paused at a natural break point.
Miku tilted her head and asked Seiya and the others, who had stopped talking and were waiting for them to approach, “Were we interrupting?”
“No. Rather, it was fortunate timing.”
Seiya, who perfectly understood why Miku had bothered to come to the training grounds, replied, looking at Shia.
Upon receiving Seiya’s gaze, Shia nodded silently.
In short, Miku had come to this training ground to move her body.
While there were practical skill classes at the academy, there were still many lectures for lower grades. As someone who had learned through actual combat, Miku sometimes felt the urge to move her body like this. Therefore, she had come with the thought of being able to join Seiya and Shia’s training.
Seeing the exchange between Seiya and Shia, Miku moved to a spot a little distance away.
“Huh?”
Seeing this, Akari let out a small, surprised sound and started to move, but Shia stopped her.
“A real battle is about to begin, so you stand here and watch.”
Saying that, Shia pulled Akari’s hand and moved her to a corner of the room.
Akari looked confused, but even more bewildered was Casey.
Miku had never before joined the training of the three. Casey knew Miku well, of course, but she didn’t know what kind of training they were about to engage in.
Facing the perplexed Casey, Seiya said, “We’re going to practice how to use Spirit Arts against an opponent that moves quickly, so watch carefully.”
“We’re not asking you to watch everything, but try to grasp the atmosphere,” Shia added, and almost simultaneously, the two turned towards Miku and took a single breath.
The battle that followed was so intense that one would wonder if it was indeed training. Waves of magic, difficult to block under normal circumstances, were unleashed by the twins. However, Miku, who was the target of these attacks, dodged them all at the last moment, perhaps deliberately. That’s right. Miku dodged all of Seiya and Shia’s magical attacks solely with her body movements, without using a barrier or any other means of defense. Casey thought it was understandable that Akari, who wasn’t very accustomed to actual combat, occasionally let out short screams. Casey herself had also been on the verge of crying out several times.
The battle (training), which felt like it would last forever for Casey and Akari, concluded in about ten minutes. What’s more, the individuals who had displayed impossibly ordinary movements were calmly discussing the training they had just completed, seemingly without much exertion. Seeing this, Casey and Akari exchanged glances and then simultaneously let out a big sigh.
“Does learning at the academy allow for this much growth?”
“No way. That’s impossible.”
Akari, who had intentionally made such a comment despite knowing the answer, could only reply by shaking her head vigorously, as Casey could only answer. For the three of them, it was merely a staged performance for Casey to witness.
